Great fun. Good hands to a thin hands crux. Some #0.75 Camalots work well here. Then continue up to a funky mantle-into-tips-crack move. Conservative rack includes doubles to from thin to #2 Camalot, consider 3 in the #0.5 Camalot size range.

This route crushed me. Obviously I need to refine my pure crack skills. This is a fine test of how you will do in the Lower Gorge: if you cruise it, you'll have a great time. If you don't, well, that golden tuff is full of bolts.

Probably the easiest of the Wildfire/Catwalk 10a's in the Lower Gorge, this climb is a very often climbed warmup classic.

And now, there is a 10m extension on it as well that goes at about 10b! We're referring to it as "Gruff Plus."

From the top of Gruff traverse right 10 feet on very easy moves past some very old petrified birdshit (you don't need to touch any of it, but you will climb near it) to come up under the base of a left-facing handcrack roof. Pull through the roof on handjams and liebacks with tons of bomber gear. Definitely one of the easier roof handcracks you will find, and pretty straightforward considering how steep it is.

A couple handsized pieces (two #2s or a #2 and a #3), and something in the yellow or orange Mastercam range protect the roof perfectly.

Two bolts and chains are there right after you pull the roof. A 60m rope gets you down with a couple meters to spare. It is extremely difficult to clean the gear on rap/lower, so probably best to have a follower clean. You can also easily TR Wildfire and or Crime Wave from the new higher anchors.

I did the Gruff Plus extension this past weekend. The ledge scrambling and birdshit detracts from it, but the overhanging moves are really fun and straight forward. I placed a #3 and an overcammed #1 camalot but a #2 and a 0.75 would probably be ideal. I would rate it 5.10a relative to other gorge routes. If your goal is to just warm up for more cracks it's probably not worth your time, but if you like easy overhung climbing or have already done Gruff and want to do something different in that grade range I highly recommend it.

This is a great route to break into 10's in the gorge, it simply eats up gear. I have intro'd more people to 'the next level' on this route. But please be nice, don't take 2 hours on it! (Yes, i have seen it)

I give it two stars because it is good. Not great and certainly not classic. Especially with badfinger right there I would just skip this altogether if not for the easy grade. Personally I thought this was harder than Badfinger. The direct start was easier for me at 5'8" but the hardest part was the Awkward jams all the way up. I got maybe 2 hand jams and the rest was fingers, tips, and rattly fingers. A few thumbsacks broke it up and a couple no hands rests eases as well. Overall though, even on top rope, this was harder for me than quasar, cruel sister, and badfinger.